Partner Needs A New Career (Leaving Teaching)
October 19, 2022 12:14 PM Subscribe
My partner doesn't want to be a teacher anymore, and it's the only "real" job he has had. He would love to find something that would still qualify for the public service loan forgiveness program, and the option to work from home would be a huge bonus. He has no idea where to start because he isn't sure what he's qualified for.
My partner has been a public school teacher for 8 years. He is past the point of feeling burnt out, but he is enrolled in the PSLF (public service loan forgiveness) program. With about 2 years left to complete the program and have his loans forgiven, he ideally would like to find another career outside of education that would still qualify. He is for sure one of the best teachers in his district and takes his job very seriously. He is very driven and organized, and a natural leader. If the job pays enough, he is fine forgetting about the PSLF and would just pay his loans off over time. I work from home for a software company and his ideal job would also be remote. We have been pouring over the governmentjobs.com website daily, but so far haven't seen anything that seems to be in his wheelhouse.
My partner has been a public school teacher for 8 years. He is past the point of feeling burnt out, but he is enrolled in the PSLF (public service loan forgiveness) program. With about 2 years left to complete the program and have his loans forgiven, he ideally would like to find another career outside of education that would still qualify. He is for sure one of the best teachers in his district and takes his job very seriously. He is very driven and organized, and a natural leader. If the job pays enough, he is fine forgetting about the PSLF and would just pay his loans off over time. I work from home for a software company and his ideal job would also be remote. We have been pouring over the governmentjobs.com website daily, but so far haven't seen anything that seems to be in his wheelhouse.
Look at county and state level jobs. Federal is harder to get into and most county and state level jobs should allow you to continue PSLF. Also anything that is an NGO or registered as a 503(c) should qualify as well. Health education might be something to look in to as you can find work with adults that is more training focused than “teach health class all day.”
posted by raccoon409 at 12:37 PM on October 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by raccoon409 at 12:37 PM on October 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
Consider technical writing or proposal writing for tech companies. It won't qualify for loan forgiveness but should pay very well. I know people who make 100k even as junior associates because they work for silicon valley companies (but the work is remote). 6 figures seems to be the median for managers.
posted by MiraK at 12:50 PM on October 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by MiraK at 12:50 PM on October 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Check the comments in this earlier thread. As i wrote there, look into corporate education management companies like Pearson or EduPoint, and others that sell LMS and SMS programs. These companies need trainers & consultants for client school districts across the country, and may have remote options.
posted by TDIpod at 8:02 PM on October 19, 2022
posted by TDIpod at 8:02 PM on October 19, 2022
USAJobs.gov. His education will probably qualify him for jobs in grades 7 and 9. There are lots of trainers working for the federal government. Also lots of boring office work. Look for postings with "few" or "many" openings, as opposed to one opening, as outsiders have a better chance of getting hired on those.
posted by DEiBnL13 at 9:54 PM on October 19, 2022
posted by DEiBnL13 at 9:54 PM on October 19, 2022
I've worked for non-profits for a long time and there are many former teachers working in both programs and operations roles. Most non-profit workers qualify for PSLF (a handful of orgs, like the ACLU, are excluded from the program but they tend to say that up-front in their job ads).
Some options that might be particularly interesting are program roles in education policy non-profits, youth-led or youth-serving organizations, or career training non-profits. Settlement houses also tend to work with youth and families in a way that might feel familiar to a teacher, but tend to pay badly in my experience. Or, maybe he wants to explore a whole new topic area. Titles to look for if he wants to work on the program side of nonprofits (i.e. doing the mission-based work) include Program Officer, Program Associate, Program Coordinator and/or Program Analyst or the Senior versions of those - those are typically junior to mid-level roles appropriate for someone new to the work but with some unrelated work experience. As others have mentioned, something like a Training Coordinator role might also be a good fit. On the operations side, Office Manager or Operations Manager (for a smaller org that doesn't need property management) are roles that are often open to people who can demonstrate their general competence but don't necessarily have direct experience.
Idealist.org is a good place to look for non-profit job listings. If he gets to the point of getting a non-profit job offer, he should be sure to look up their 990 before deciding to accept it. Those show the organization's budget, their general financial position, and how much the leaders of the organization are getting paid. GuideStar and ProPublica both make 990s available for free.
posted by snaw at 3:24 AM on October 20, 2022
Some options that might be particularly interesting are program roles in education policy non-profits, youth-led or youth-serving organizations, or career training non-profits. Settlement houses also tend to work with youth and families in a way that might feel familiar to a teacher, but tend to pay badly in my experience. Or, maybe he wants to explore a whole new topic area. Titles to look for if he wants to work on the program side of nonprofits (i.e. doing the mission-based work) include Program Officer, Program Associate, Program Coordinator and/or Program Analyst or the Senior versions of those - those are typically junior to mid-level roles appropriate for someone new to the work but with some unrelated work experience. As others have mentioned, something like a Training Coordinator role might also be a good fit. On the operations side, Office Manager or Operations Manager (for a smaller org that doesn't need property management) are roles that are often open to people who can demonstrate their general competence but don't necessarily have direct experience.
Idealist.org is a good place to look for non-profit job listings. If he gets to the point of getting a non-profit job offer, he should be sure to look up their 990 before deciding to accept it. Those show the organization's budget, their general financial position, and how much the leaders of the organization are getting paid. GuideStar and ProPublica both make 990s available for free.
posted by snaw at 3:24 AM on October 20, 2022
Congrats to your partner on recognizing and honoring the effect of teaching culture on their health. My partner and I both recently left the profession for the same reason.
I would caution your partner about leaping into nonprofit/charitable organizations without a good, hard look at that particular operation, because everything that’s wrong with education is also wrong with nonprofits, with the additional problem that nonprofits are basically private orgs with a fraction of the oversight that a state-operated public school system has. In my recent experience, charitable orgs are: paying barely over the minimum wage for extremely demanding work, painting the legal line for working conditions (hours, breaks, and lunches), and exposing employees to in-person and vicarious trauma without any mitigating or remediating measures. .
They are also participating in abusive practices around probationers and parolees, using these people as “volunteers” under adverse work conditions. Some orgs are participating in the dubious legal practice of forcing other companies’ employees to “volunteer” (for labor that theoretically would not aggravate a particular injury) while they are out on workers comp leave, as a condition of continuing to be paid by their own company.
The philosophy of charitable orgs is that you are there because you receive some degree of satisfaction and fulfillment from helping other people. This characteristic of really easy to exploit, and I just want to say be careful.
Types and names of orgs I am aware of with this exploitation: a DV org I knew of (can’t name) uses probationers and work comp recipients, Feeding America uses probationers, Goodwill & Salvation Army manage parolees and probably probationers as well. There could be more, this is just what I know.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:38 AM on October 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
I would caution your partner about leaping into nonprofit/charitable organizations without a good, hard look at that particular operation, because everything that’s wrong with education is also wrong with nonprofits, with the additional problem that nonprofits are basically private orgs with a fraction of the oversight that a state-operated public school system has. In my recent experience, charitable orgs are: paying barely over the minimum wage for extremely demanding work, painting the legal line for working conditions (hours, breaks, and lunches), and exposing employees to in-person and vicarious trauma without any mitigating or remediating measures. .
They are also participating in abusive practices around probationers and parolees, using these people as “volunteers” under adverse work conditions. Some orgs are participating in the dubious legal practice of forcing other companies’ employees to “volunteer” (for labor that theoretically would not aggravate a particular injury) while they are out on workers comp leave, as a condition of continuing to be paid by their own company.
The philosophy of charitable orgs is that you are there because you receive some degree of satisfaction and fulfillment from helping other people. This characteristic of really easy to exploit, and I just want to say be careful.
Types and names of orgs I am aware of with this exploitation: a DV org I knew of (can’t name) uses probationers and work comp recipients, Feeding America uses probationers, Goodwill & Salvation Army manage parolees and probably probationers as well. There could be more, this is just what I know.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:38 AM on October 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
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posted by brookeb at 12:27 PM on October 19, 2022 [2 favorites]